


TIME

by CosmicFaeryWings



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Happy times and sad times., Spending time together., Thoughts of the past, remembering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-02
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-09-21 14:03:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9552122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CosmicFaeryWings/pseuds/CosmicFaeryWings
Summary: Inquisitor and Cullen spend some time together.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be something else, but ended up as is. Regardless, I hope you enjoy reading it.  
> Apologies for the lame title and summary (I really couldn't think of anything, so any suggestions...?).  
> Kudos, comments and constructive criticisms always welcome and appreciated.
> 
> Happy reading!!!

The first thing Cullen noticed when he woke was that he was alone. Nothing new there. Ariana had always been an early riser - a habit that harked back to her days as a hunter for her clan - and liked to watch the sunrise from the battlements. If he looked out he would likely see her there now, sitting cross-legged on one of the broken parapets with her bow lying across her lap. The first time he’d seen her sitting like that… Maker strike him down if his heart hadn’t jumped to his throat and stayed there until she’d got down again.

The second thing was that he felt rested. Most mornings he woke after a fitful night, tossing and turning as the pain of lyrium withdrawal and the nightmare’s that had plagued him for more more than a decade now took hold. During the day he could keep them at bay, to some extent, by keeping busy. But at night, when he was sleeping, he was powerless to stop them.

Swinging his legs over the side of the bed he stretched, got to his feet and found the clothes he’d discarded the night before. Normally he folded his clothing and left  them in a neat pile in the corner of the room. The previous night, however, neat piles of clothes had been the last thing on his mind.  At least his sword was in its usual place; having carried it for the past twenty years, give or take, he didn’t feel properly dressed without it.

-x-

Stepping off the bottom rung of the ladder, Cullen glanced at the paperwork piled up on his desk. He really needed to get through some more, but it could wait a while longer. Instead he crossed to one of the doors and pulled it open. Outside, as expected, Ariana was sat on one of the parapets.

Leaning against the door frame, he watched the way the newly risen sun danced in her hair. He recalled the first time he’d spoken to her back in Haven. Waist length silver curls and large lilac eyes was what he remembered most. And the way she’d smiled, teasing… playful, as though she knew what was going through his mind.

“Thinking about anything worth sharing?” Ariana asked, her lilting voice dragging Cullen from his thoughts.

Shaking his head a little, Cullen focused once more on the elf. Lost to his musings he hadn’t seen her get down from her perch, or heard her move toward him. Though that was hardly surprising. She moved almost silently, something that had probably gone a long way to helping her become one of her clan’s best hunters.

“Our first conversation, back in Haven,” he answered, not quite meeting her eyes.

Ariana’s eyes narrowed slightly. “What about it?” she queried, watching him intently.

“I was thinking how… inspiring you looked back then,” Cullen replied, stepping forward and wrapping one arm around the Inquisitor’s waist so he could pull her toward him. “And thanking the Maker that you were gracious enough to listen to me ramble on about the Inquisition.”

Hooking a finger under her chin, he tilted her head up. “Did I tell you,” he asked, pausing just long enough to press a chaste kiss to the corner of her mouth, “that after you’d gone I prayed to the Maker that I hadn’t scared you away… that you might come back and speak with me again.”

Laughing lightly, Ariana reached her hand up. Letting it rest against the side of his face she traced over the scar with her thumb, brushing lightly over his lips. She smiled when one of the soldiers walked by, casting a cursory glance in their direction. A few months back, back when this relationship was still in its infancy, Cullen would have pulled away from such an intimate touch if he’d noticed anyone too close. This time, he didn’t. This time he turned his head slightly as the man passed and pressed a kiss to the palm of Ariana’s hand.

“I need to travel to Val Royeaux,” she said, her voice soft, “to find a _dress_ for the Empress’s ball. If you have nothing you need to do…?”

“Nothing that can’t wait a day,” Cullen replied, chuckling at the way she’d almost spat the word ‘dress’. “I can deal with the extra paperwork tomorrow, and one of the lieutenants can put the troops through their paces.”

 -x-

Walking out of the dress shop, leaving the seamstress to make the necessary alterations to the dress she’d chosen, Ariana crossed the market square in the direction of the weapon’s shop where she’d left Cullen. As she entered, he turned toward the door.

“Hungry?” she asked the former templar, ignoring the strange looks the shop’s owner was giving her. In Orlais elven servants were apparently treated well, most of the time, but they were still considered lower-class.

“Famished,” Cullen answered, setting the sword he was holding back down on the display stand. It was a nice weapon - a good weight and well-balanced - but nothing he needed right now.  “Though I’m not sure we can…”

Huffing a laugh, Ariana moved toward Cullen and pressed a finger to his lips. The shop owner stared, evidently scandalised by the action; Inquisitor or not, she was still and elf. “Who said anything about buying? One of the cooks, that young red-head Bull likes, she threw some things together for us. A thank you, she said, for bringing back so much meat from the Hinterlands.”

Bidding farewell to the shop owner, Cullen followed Ariana out into the market square.

“Did you find anything for the ball?” he asked, noting that she wasn’t carrying anything.

“Something,” Ariana told him. “But the seamstress needs to make some alterations. And, no, you won’t be seeing it before the ball. That I’ve got to wear the thing once is bad enough.”

Cullen smiled, but said nothing. In all the time he’d known her, other than the first few days when she’d worn the clothes she’d been given as a prisoner, he’d never seen her in anything other than her dalish hunter’s garb or riding leathers. Try as he might, he could not imagine her in a dress. At least not of the sort that seemed to be in fashion around Orlais at the moment.

“But what about you?” the elf continued. “I saw the way you were looking at that sword you were holding. The Inquisition…”

“Has plenty of other things it needs money for,” Cullen finished. “It was a nice sword - very nice, in fact - but the one I have has served me well so far. After so long, it almost feels like part of me.”

“I understand,” Ariana replied quietly.

Her own weapon - an iron-wood longbow that had been made for her by the clan’s craftmaster - had been lost at the Temple of Sacred Ashes, in the explosion that destroyed it. She had a new bow now, one Harritt had made for her. It was a good bow, but it wasn’t _her_ bow.

The rest of the short trek to the stables, where Ariana had left the prepared picnic in the pack thrown over her hart’s back, passed in a comfortable silence. The look on the stable-hand’s face when she’d shown up riding the majestic beast was something Cullen wasn’t going to forget anytime soon. He’d heard stories of the dalish affinity with their ‘mounts’ . They rode with neither saddle or reins, but controlled them with the skill and grace of the Orlesian chevaliers. He’d heard plenty of stories, but never quite believed them. Until now.

-x-

Sitting on the grass, her back resting against the rock behind her, Ariana looked up at the sky.

“Everything seems so peaceful here,” she commented, her voice not much more than a whisper. “Given time I could almost forget what’s going on elsewhere.”

Hearing her words, reading between the lines, Cullen felt his heart break for the woman he loved. He wanted nothing more than to be able to take her away from all the troubles. But no matter where they went… no matter how far they rode, he knew that wasn’t possible. The fate of the world lay on her shoulders. He would help her as much as he could, would be there for her whenever she needed him to be, but ultimately the burden was hers alone to bear.

Catching her hand in his he raised it to his lips, gently kissing each fingertip. She was the strongest woman he knew, emotionally. She’d been accused of the most heinous of crimes and she no longer had a clan to return to once all this was over, yet still she kept fighting. For strangers… for people she didn’t know, and probably never would.

“I noticed you slept better last night,” Ariana said, the unexpected statement once more dragging Cullen from the thoughts he was lost in.

“I did,” Cullen admitted after some hesitation. “I… There’s been no pain.”

Ariana looked at him for a moment, silently assessing what he’d just told her.

“No pain?” she asked him finally. “You mean from the withdrawal? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Cullen sighed heavily, running his fingers through his blonde hair. “I didn’t want to give you, or me, false hope,” he admitted, his eyes on a clump of small flowers a short distance from where he was sitting. “I’ve had days before when the pain has gone away for a few hours, but it’s always returned. I guess I didn’t want to…”

“Tempt fate?” Ariana finished, turning her head toward him. When she spoke again her voice was low… quiet, barely holding together as she spoke through a torrent of emotion. “Over the past weeks I’ve lost my clan. I’ve come close to losing my mind to an Envy demon, and I’ve left a good man to die in the fade. I need something to hope for… something to cling to when times are at their darkest. I can’t think about the future. Sometimes it’s hard enough thinking about the here and now, knowing it might all be over tomorrow or the next day.”

Taking a breath, she exhaled slowly. “Cassandra said something to me not long after I closed the rift at the temple,” she continued, her voice steadier now… and stronger. “She said we should ‘take our victories where we can’. I think she was right. There’s been so much death this past year, and more to come before this war is over. We need…”

Standing, Cullen pulled Ariana to her feet. He kissed her, tenderly at first and then more passionately. Pulling back he gazed down into her lilac eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.   


End file.
